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RAS LANOUF, Libya – A giant yellow worker effort into the sky, trailed by fat plumes of black respiration weekday after conflict between rebels and forces hardcore to Moammar Gadhafi set two lubricator installations aflame and inflicted still more alteration on Libya's game energy industry.

In the west, Gadhafi claimed conclusion in recapturing Zawiya, the municipality closest to the top that had fallen into contestant hands. The claim could not directly be verified; phone lines there impact not been working during a deadly, six-day siege.

The polity twice promised to escort external journalists to Zawiya on Wednesday, only to equilibrate the meet at the terminal minute. But state TV showed a gathering of hundreds, purportedly in Zawiya's important square, shouting "The grouping want Colonel Gadhafi!"

The fall of Zawiya to anti-Gadhafi residents early on in the uprising that began Feb. 15 illustrated the initial, blazing progress of the opposition. But Gadhafi has seized the momentum, battering the rebels with airstrikes and armament blast and repulsing their westward territory toward the capital, Tripoli.

Gadhafi's successes impact left Western powers struggling to become up with a organisation to support the rebels without becoming ensnared in the Byzantine and fast-moving conflict. On Wednesday, a high-ranking member of the African expeditionary flew to opening with a communication for Egyptian grey officials from Gadhafi, but no boost info were known.

President Barack Obama's most grownup advisers met weekday to summary possible steps to push Gadhafi to halt the hostility and provide up power. They designed to examine the ramifications of a no-fly regularize over Libya and other possibleness expeditionary options, U.S. officials said, speech on condition of obscurity to handle internal administration deliberations.

A rebel spokesman said weekday they module buy weapons if the planetary community fails to declare a no-fly zone.

"If a no-fly regularize is not imposed, we do impact the means to get armaments. We don't wait any land to respond to care with us in cost of an blazonry sale," said Abdel-Hafidh Ghoga, a spokesman for the rebels' tentative transitional domestic council.

He did not elaborate or feature where the rebels would get the money for arms.

Britain and author are pushing for the U.N. to create a no-fly regularize over the country, and patch the U.S. haw be persuaded to sign on, such a move is implausible to win the backing of veto-wielding Security Council members Russia and China, which traditionally object to such steps as infringements on domestic sovereignty.

Gadhafi said in a Turkic broadcasting interview that Libyans would fisticuffs back if Western nations imposed a no-fly regularize to preclude his program from using its air obligate to bomb polity opponents staging a rebellion.

He said imposing the restrictions would establish the West's actual intention was to overwhelm his country's lubricator wealth.

"Such a status would be useful," Gadhafi said. "The African grouping would see their actual aims to verify Libya low their control, to verify their freedoms and to verify their lubricator and every African grouping module verify up blazonry and fight."

In orient Libya, an Associated Press reporter at Ras Lanouf near the face distinction of conflict saw an explosion from the Atlantic of the Sidr lubricator facility, 360 miles (580 kilometers) east of Tripoli.

Three columns of fat respiration chromatic from the area, ostensibly from burning oil.

Mustafa Gheriani, an contestant spokesman, said the polity armament impact a scuttlebutt supplying Sidr from lubricator fields in the desert. An lubricator hardware store also was hit, ostensibly by an airstrike, he said.

Gheriani accused Gadhafi forces of intentionally targeting lubricator facilities as a warning to Europe that the confusion in Libya module hurt lubricator supplies.

"Gadhafi thinks he can put push on Europe, but I conceive this is meet feat to work against him," Gheriani told the AP.

Ras Lanouf is the west saucer seized by rebels agitated along the country's important route on the sea coast. Four bodies were brought to the edifice at the hospital in Ras Lanouf, doctors said.

In Cairo, an Egyptian grey authorised told the AP on condition of obscurity that Maj. Gen. Abdul-Rahman containerful Ali al-Said al-Zawi, the nous of Libya's logistics and supply authority, was asking to meet Egypt's expeditionary rulers.

There were some smooth attempts to stabilize the crisis.

Portugal's Foreign Minister Luis Amado met weekday in opening with an envoy from city to handle the upheaval in Libya, a statement said. The gathering was unreal in agreement with dweller Union external contract chief Empress Ashton and was part of preparations for a gathering of EU external ministers after this hebdomad in Brussels to handle the status in Libya, the ministry said.

The hostility in Libya has condemned a sound on the country's lubricator production. For the time week, polity forces and rebels impact been battling around several key lubricator ports east — Brega, Ras Lanouf and Sidr. At their peak, those threesome goods terminals handled most 715,000 barrels of crude per day, or roughly 45 proportionality of the country's exports, according to figures publicised in business publication Africa Energy. A ordinal orient port, Marsa al-Harigah, handled added 220,000 barrels per day.

In total, those quaternary ports would then statement for nearly 60 proportionality of the country's crude exports.

"We were already sight Libya as pretty such being closed," said prophet Cizsuk, Mideast lubricator shrink with IHS Global Insight in London. "It was only a question of time before the escalating hostility would alteration lubricator facilities."

"Libya has been discounted from the global markets," he said.

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Michael reportable from Tripoli. Ryan screenwriter in Benghazi, Libya, Bradley Klapper and Matthew Lee in Washington, Derek Gatopoulos in Athinai and Tarek El-Tablawy in opening contributed to this report.

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